Anniversaries (Or, a McGarrett Family Thanksgiving)
by liamarehorselover
Summary: As the Anniversary of Steve's torture in Korea rolls around, the team bands together to offer him some comfort. Written for the H50 holiday fic exchange on live journal. Standard disclaimers apply.


As soon as Steve wakes up Wednesday he knows he isn't going into work that day.

He feels, not sick exactly, but weary and miserable. His head aches slightly, and there's a sort of ugly twist in his stomach, a pained feeling in his chest. He wonders if he's coming down with something. He manages to stagger to the bathroom to take care of necessities and splash some water on his face, but his bed looks way too good, and he slides back under the warm covers gratefully. He shakes his head as he burrows further under the blankets, pressing his face into the pillow. No, he isn't going in today.

The governor is surprisingly understanding about the entire thing, telling him to rest up and he'll let Five 0 know about it. Just when he was about to hang up the phone, Denning's low voice said, "Steve?"

"Yes, sir?"

"Take a couple of days."

"Yes, sir."

With that, he turns his phone to silent, pulls the blankets back over his head, and goes back to sleep.

Danny is the one who ended up getting the phone call from the governor, telling them McGarrett wouldn't be in today. He had been a little surprised, barring recovering from torture and pursuing personal vendettas, Steve didn't really get sick. He hadn't even found evidence to suggest the man was sick at all. When he mentions it to Chin the man just shrugged, saying, "It's not that surprising."

"What do you mean?"

Both Chin and Kono look at him, and Kono just shrugs, "It's that time of year. Figures he'd be a little stressed out."

"Thanksgiving?" He knows the holidays aren't Steve's favorite time of year, but he didn't think the man had any really aversion to them.

They look at him and shake their heads and Chin finally says, "It's the anniversary, brah. This time last year Steve was in Korea."

And oh, damn, damn, he's an idiot. He's such an idiot, why is he such an idiot? Because, yeah, he should've known that, should've been keeping track, should've been thinking about that, but he'd been sort of focused on other things, like making sure Steve's mother didn't turn to the dark side, and Chin didn't flip a lid, and Kono didn't elope with the delinquent boy wonder. Steve himself has seemed rather stable lately, so it's no real surprise that this had occurred. He shakes his head and picks up his jacket, not bothering to tell Chin or Kono where he's going. They'll be along eventually, once the work day's done.

Steve's place is quiet when he gets there, the kitchen empty, nothing in the sink. Great, that means Steve hasn't even found his way out of bed yet. He sighs, running a hand through his hair and starting up the steps, making sure he's loud enough to let Steve know he's coming, and calling, "Babe?" loud enough that he figures Steve's probably not going to shoot him, at least.

The bedroom is quiet and Steve is still in the bed, covers pulled all the way over his head, and yeah, that's not good. That's the way Steve had slept for a week after North Korea, and a couple of days after his little stint in prison. It means that Steve's not feeling too good.

He settles on the edge of the bed gently, saying, "Hey, blanket man, come on out for a minute, huh?"

There's a soft snort, then Steve pulls the blankets down far enough to see his eyes, and looks at Danny kind of like a little kid, sick home from school, tired and a sick and more than a little cranky. Danny's reminded inexplicably of Grace, and he supposes that's where the parental instincts come out, as he puts a hand gently on Steve's forehead and says, "Heard you're not feeling so good, huh?"

Steve just turns his head into the pillow some more and offers, "I'll sleep it off, Danno."

He shakes his head, "No,babe, you're not gonna sleep it off. You should've called me, I would've been over way before now."

Steve just shook his head and tried to pull the blankets up over his face again, but Danny shakes his head and tells him, "Unh-uh, babe, not until you drink some water for me."

He fills a glass and gets Steve to drain it, then lets him burrow back under the blankets, sweeping his hand in slow arcs over his back for a long minute, until Steve's slow breathes even out into sleep.

Once Steve's out he goes down to the store and buys some of that healthy chicken noodle soup Steve likes so much and dumps it on the stove to heat up, calling Chin and Kono while he's at it. He tells them what's going on, and they promise to be along shortly, grabbing a few things on their way. He manages to make some toast up too. He's not really surprised Steve came down with something, the way they've all been trucking lately. Steve just needs to be taken care of for a few days, and that's something they never mind doing, but he really wishes that Super SEAL didn't have to be feeling this bad to allow it. He knows John McGarrett was a good man, and that he sent Steve away with the best of intentions, but he wonders if the man would have done it if he'd been able to see the affect it's had on his son, even now. Steve's independence was the making of him, but Danny wonders if it'll be his undoing one of these days too.

Chin and Kono arrive relatively quickly, with the things they need for a few days dinner as well as a couple of movies. None of them really have much to go home to, so they figure they'll just crash here tonight and tomorrow and make a weekend out of it, and hope Steve feels better Monday morning. Danny finishes the soup and trays it with the toast, and Chin offers to take it up to Steve. Danny nods, and mentions to him in a low aside, "You gotta get him to drink. He hadn't had anything today, and he's pretty dehydrated. He's not saying anything, but he's not feeling too good, and I'm thinking it's gonna be worse in the morning."

Chin nods, asks, "You think he's got that flu that's been going around?"

Danny shakes his head, "God I hope not. I had that a week ago, and he stayed with me for it, though, so he'd be about due."

The Hawaiian looks grim as he nods and walks up the stairs softly, calling, "Steve, I'm coming up, brah. Don't shoot, 'kay?"

He manages to get Steve out from under the blankets long enough to eat some of the toast and the soup, but he has to press when Steve ignores the water altogether. Steve looks mulish when he says, "Water too, Brah" but Chin shakes his head, "Glare all you want, McGarrett. Water's non-negotiable."

Steve bows to the inevitable and drinks, then hands the glass back to Chin, who takes it gracefully, and says, "Get some more rest, Steve."

He sits on the end of the bed as Steve tugs the blankets back where they were and closes his eyes again. He stays until Steve's asleep again, and though the man doesn't say anything, he knows he is grateful.

Steve sleeps until about three in the morning, and when he wakes, he knows immediately this isn't going to be good. He can't do much else about it other than lean over the side of the bed as pretty much everything he's eaten this week comes up. He doesn't notice much beyond his stomach revolting as he tries to hold onto the bed to give himself some leverage, and he's grateful when Chin reaches him to support his shoulders, swearing, "Damn, boss." as he starts to shake. Chin seems a little lost beyond keeping him up out of his own sick, which he is grateful for, but he's even more grateful when Danny comes in and shakes his head, mumbling obscenities to himself as he helps Chin shift him back on the bed, telling the man, "Keep him on his side. I'm gonna go get a bucket. We need to get him cleaned up."

Chin nods, keeping one hand on his shoulder and supporting him at the back with pillows, while Kono pulls up the rug, waving away his muttered apologies. Danny bustles back into the room, mumbling about the stomach flu and three in the morning, even as he gives Steve a glass of water to rinse his mouth out and then along with Chin helps him up and into the bathroom, where they proceed to get him stripped and into a cool shower with a minimum of embarrassment. Once he gets out, shivering, they help him back into boxer shorts and a t-shirt and back into the stripped bed. He's discomfited about the fact that all his blankets are gone but one, but when he complains Kono just tells him, "You're cooking your brains boss."

That's the last thing he remembers clearly for a while.

Thursday is a mess. Danny calls them all in sick, and Dennings is surprisingly accommodating, so much so that Danny would be skeptical if he had time to be. Instead, he spends most of the day trying to keep Steve calm and compliant with the "Drink water so you don't end up in the hospital plan." Steve doesn't want to, which is understandable, because the poor guys still throwing up pretty much everything. But Steve's got to drink, or Danny's going to have to make that executive decision, and it's really not one he wants to make. Between himself and Kono they manage to keep him pretty hydrated. He won't eat at all, but they push enough gatorade that Danny feels okay about it. Mostly they let him curl up in bed, and Kono sits with him, rubbing his back and talking to him softly as he clutches a pillow. Danny makes himself a baloney sandwhich, and mutters, "Happy Thanksgiving." into the air, dreaming of New Jersey and a table loaded with food. Steve's fever spikes right about then, and they coax him into four tablespoons of childrens liquied tylenol, while he mutters about now knowing what Shelburne is. Kono rolls her eyes, and Danny's with her, wishes they still didn't have a clue.

Chin focuses on keeping the place clean and running laundry, and between times comes and sits with them in Steve's room. Steve's a pretty quiet patient, when he's not throwing up, and he seems to like having them around so around they stay in his range of vision as much as possible and talk or play cards, or read. He's much improved on Friday, but still feverish and nauseous, and it's Danny who ends up staying up with him that night. Steve is restless and tired, and he's getting emotional as he still feels poorly, and Danny, in desperation, ends up sitting up on the left side of Steve's bed and rubbing his fingers through Steve's slightly matted hair. It doesn't send him to sleep, but it does a world of good at calming him down, and it relaxes him enough to say, "Thanks Danno."

"Anytime babe."

Steve sits for a long minute before saying, "It's better, with you guys around."

Danny closes his eyes for a minute, asking, "What's better babe?"

Steve is half dozing now, and he says, "The memories."

Danny doesn't answer, not wanting to disturb Steve's rest, but he shakes his head, promising himself that Steve's going to get watched a little more closely from now on.

Steve sleeps late on Saturday, remembering being woken very early in the morning to swallow some more of that grape stuff, then Kono tucking him back under the covers. He smells food sometime around noon, but doesn't think anything of it, and goes back to sleep. It's later in the evening when Chin wakes him up and helps him prop himself up with pillows, and Kono who sets a plate of food on his lap.

He looks down at the stuffing, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie, then looks up at his team, his Ohana, and says, "I thought we missed Thanksgiving."

Danny smiles at him a little, then says, "You just postponed it a little, babe. That's all. We wanted to make sure you could eat with us." And indeed, they all have plates full of food on their own laps.

And that hits Steve in all the right places. Last Thanksgiving he'd been three days back from North Korea, still strung out on morphine and on soft foods. He'd eaten mostly pumpkin pie and cranberry sauce and mashed potatoes and everyone had been there with him too, just like this year. He can't help but smile as he takes a bite of the pie.

He's got a lot to be thankful for this year.


End file.
